TIFF is almost a wrap! It’s been one of the busiest festivals in Toronto history, bringing in some of the biggest names in Hollywood. The parties have been insane and the whole city has been bustling with activity. Now that it’s almost over, here are some of our highlights and behind the scenes stories.

Kristen Stewart Ignites The Opening Day of TIFF
Her film wasn’t even the official opening night film. That honour belonged to Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Looper. Nevertheless, the main highlight of the first day of Toronto International Film Festival was hands-down Kristen Stewart’s return to the red carpet. The starlet had yet to make a scheduled public appearance since news broke that she cheated on long term boyfriend Robert Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsmandirector Rupert Sanders. Kristen, who is notoriously shy, decided to make her first red carpet appearance at TIFF. And why not? Canadians are known internationally for being some of the nicest people of the planet. What better place than Toronto for Kristen to test out how she will be received by fans and audience members after her “momentary indiscretion” this summer. Kristen’s return to the red carpet was a great triumph for the actress. Not only were fans supportive — some held signs welcoming her back — she felt comfortable enough to stay on the red carpet for 40 minutes! The actress had a smile on her face the whole time, as she stood with her cast mates from On the Road. We were so happy that Canada could help ease Kristen back into the spotlight where she belongs.

The Producers Ball Is Canadiana At Its Best
Rewind one day! Before the film festival kicked off, we got to party Canadian style at the Producers Ball on the Wednesday before the festival officially began. Some of our favourite Canadians were there — the Property Brothers, George Stroumboulopoulos, Emily Hampshire, Emmanuelle Vaugier — the list goes on! Emmanuelle told us that she really enjoyed working with charlie Sheen on two and half men ( she played his girfriend) and that she wishes him well on his new show.

Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson Hang Out Together At The Soho House Toronto!
Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson are arguably the three most celebrated actresses of their generation. All three are or have been a part of a major franchise — Twilight, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, respectively — and all three have also been critically acclaimed for their acting chops in more challenging roles. Jennifer has even been nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. It’s easy to pin actresses against each other in Hollywood, assuming that rivalry must run deep. Allegedly, Kristen just recently beat out Jennifer for the coveted lead role in the intense drama Lie Down in Darkness, a film adaptation of William Styron’s 1951 novel. Nevertheless, it turns out that the three girls are actually big fans of each others’ work. Since they were all in town for TIFF, they decided to meet up at Soho House Toronto. “It was really nice. There’s always rumors that actresses have so much rivalry and that we don’t get on or anything,” Emma told reporters. “We all just sat around eating food. We were all starving and just having a drink and just talking about how crazy it all is. … They’re both lovely. They’re both super, super sweet.”

Our Cover Girl Comes To Town!
Anna Kendrick, our fall cover girl, came to town in support of two movies: End of Watch, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep. Back when we interviewed Anna earlier this summer, we had a feeling she’d be a red carpet staple at TIFF once again this year, though at that time, none of TIFF’s 2012 films had been confirmed. Anna is a big fan of the Toronto Film Festival. As she told us in our cover story, her favourite memory of TIFF was at the 50/50 premiere with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Anna told us: “At the 50/50 premiere, I brought my mom. She got lost in the crowd. I got this whole group of people who were screaming for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s autograph to stop and just look for my mom for a second, which was really cool.”

Johnny Depp & Ryan Gosling Make The Ladies Swoon
Last weekend, we were absolutely obsessed with the idea that both Ryan Gosling and Johnny Depp were in our hometown on the very same day. Would two of the most beautiful men in world be in the same room at the same time… in our hometown, no less?! A girl can dream. Johnny was here in support of the documentary The West Memphis Three and Ryan was here for his new film The Place Behind The Pines. If you live in Toronto, you know you’re likely to see Ryan around town any given time of year in unlikely star-gazing spots like Sneaky Dee’s and the University of Toronto gym. Hey, the hometown boy lived here for a long time before behind relocating to New York a couple of years ago.

We Lunch With Jude Law, Alexander Skarsgard & Ian SomerhalderWe met Jude Law, Alexander Skarsgard and Ian Somerhalder at Paul Haggis’ Artists for Peace and Justice luncheon. The event, which raised money to build schools in Haiti, featured performances from Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk, K’naan and Arcade Fire. The luncheon raised over $550,000 for Haiti, and it was definitely a day that we’ll keep in our memory bank for a long time. Arcade Fire’s acoustic performance of three songs was one of the most beautiful stage performances we’ve seen in years (the band has family ties to Haiti, making the cause an extremely important issue for the Montreal-based band). Jude Law told us that he loved Toronto for being a most inviting city ( we’ll invite Jude anywhere). We told Alexander Skarsgard ( Eric on True Blood) that we love True Blood so much and do theshow recapsafter every episode and he then suggested that we try our hand at writing for the new season. While he surely was joking ( we think), we just might do our predictions again on the site before the show returns for it’s next season. Thanks Eric Northman!

Elton John Rocks Our World!

At Fashion Cares 25, the last ever Toronto fundraiser – we got to dine and party with Rock Royalty- Elton John. After a mixer and a wonderful dinner at the Royal York , it was off to the Sony centre for a fun and boisterous concert featuring : Scissor Sisters, Janelle Monae, and of course Elton John. Hosted by Dean and Dan Caten and Linda Evangelista ( who looked amazing) the show had everyone dancing in the isles. While we didn’t last for the after party, we heard it was fun times as well.

If you don’t know who Emily Hampshire is by now, it’s time to start paying attention! The Canadian beauty not only did an impromptu, silly photo shoot with us in the bathroom at the Producers Ball (no joke), she also made a red carpet appearance in support of her latest film My Awkward Sexual Adventure. Check out Emily’s top 5 favourite beauty products, which she told us all about during the festival in our post: Emily Hampshire’s 5 Favourite Beauty Products.

We’re running on very little sleep, but as always, the film fest makes us so proud to be Canadian. We are off to the Emmys soon to bring you more insider scoop. Stay tuned!